Movie Review: Funny People

Funny Ha-Ha?

“Funny People” puts comedians on the hook but lets them go.

by Wayne Melton

As Joe Pesci might ask, does the title mean the people are funny ha-ha, or just funny?

The answer is both, to a degree. Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” his third comic-drama after “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” shows his sentimental streak growing wider, but it’s also his most meaningful examination of comedy and the people who make it, with characters both funny ha-ha and funny as in interestingly human, at least for a portion of its far too long 146 minutes.

Drillbit Taylor

This review first appeared on StyleWeekly.com

“Drillbit Taylor” is too easy to pick on.
by Wayne Melton

This is going to sound harsh, because the movie is about a group of high-school freshmen who hire a bodyguard to protect them from bullies. But spend an hour with the leads, skinny Wade (Nate Hartley) and pudgy Ryan (Troy Gentile), and you just want to beat them up, too.

Their humiliations arrive at the hands of bully Filkins (Alex Frost) and his toady (Josh Peck) — loathsome as well, though not necessarily the way they are intended, and not as much as the nerdy heroes. Oblivious that they’ve pushed their audience into severe character disgust, the filmmakers insert creepy little Emmit, played by creepy little David Dorfman, who may in fact be a work of CGI because his emaciated body doesn’t look like it’s developed a centimeter since he played a grade-schooler in “The Ring Two.”